“Quick Bites during the Novelty Cake Challenge”

“How did they do that?” is the first thought that occurs to anyone upon seeing an intricate Novelty cake. To answer this question, we talked to the pastry chefs behind these edible masterpieces.

Naseema Moosa has been baking for the past 2 years since leaving her office job. Planning and preparing the cake took her 1 week. Her cake tells a story of a “rat party” – aptly named “Ratatouille” with intricate models of dancing mice around a pastry chef. Her first time participating in such a competition, she hopes to advertise “The Kitchen’s” patisserie where she works full time. She is so passionate about baking that free time is also taken up with making cakes at home for custom orders.

Vijith from Fruity Mellow Cakes has 13 years of pastry experience. He’s always trying to do something different with cakes and came up with his idea for a novelty cake back in 2016. It took 20 days of preparation to make a throne cake – of which concept drawing of the cake took around 5 days. His skill can be seen in the meticulously hand-painted dragon design on the cake.

Representing Baros is Ibrahim Nathif and Perera. Nathif, who has over a decade of pastry experience, has participated in this competition before and has a bronze medal under his belt. Juggling resort work and preparing for the competition was not easy for them yet they completed their cake within 2 weeks.

24-year-old WADND Kumara aka Navie from St Regis Vommuli resort has been baking for the past 5 years. His preparation took a month with 2 weeks dedicated to baking and decorating the cake. Though he has previously participated in Srilankan exhibitions and won a bronze medal, this is his first time participating in such a competition in the Maldives.

Aminath “Ainthu” Faheem has been baking for the past 20 years. She has been running her business by taking cake orders through her Facebook page. She has won a bronze medal in the past Hotel Asia Exhibitions during 2012 and 2013. The concept of her cake was based on “Royalty” and took her 3 days of nonstop work starting from planning the design to baking the actual cake and decorating it.